Snotlout had finally come up with an idea. He smiled, pleased with himself. That had been unusually quick, even for him. At least, he thought it was quick...

Well, the sun had been about in the middle there when he had started, and now it was right down the other side.

And he was very hungry, to boot. Curse this annoying world! Of course, it was time going too fast, not his thinking too slow. He couldn't be at fault.

He considered shaking his fist at the sky, but decided against it. That would give the twins too much to laugh at. Not that it was funny, of course.

Anyway, his idea.

His wonderful, brilliant, clever idea.

That would be...

Erm...

Oh.

Oh dear.

Well - back to the drawing board then.

*()*()*()*

Astrid's arms were so tired... she couldn't keep this up much longer.

Hiccup seemed to be tiring, too. He was still hurt after all, and his wing beats were growing more and more sluggish, the rate at which the islands were coming closer slowing dramatically.

"Come on Hiccup, don't give up now!" Astrid urged, the edge of fear in her voice very obvious. "Keep going!"

Hiccup nodded slowly, puffing out a little air. His wing beats seemed to speed up a little, but not by much.

Astrid readjusted her grip on Hiccup's leg, her palms sweaty and her arms shaking with effort.

Arms weren't meant to carry this kind of burden - they were meant for short lived heavy lifting, not endurance. She couldn't keep this up.

"Come on, Hiccup! I can't hold on..." She moaned. Hiccup sped up a little, seemingly fuelled entirely by a heady mixture of adrenaline, determination and survival instinct.

Heady, apparently, but short lasting. Soon their height began to drop, slowly coming closer and closer to the water.

Hiccup looked down at Astrid, an apologetic look etched on to his face.

"No... No! No, don't you dare!" Astrid shouted.

Too late.

The pair of them crashed into the water, leaving only splashing water and bubbles behind them.

*()*()*()*

Right. This time Snotlout had it. They would find a dragon, tame it and fly away! He smiled, silently priding himself on his genius idea. Even the Fishbone couldn't come up with and idea like that, and let alone so fast! It wasn't like it had been dark for hours, was it...

The stars twinkled merrily.

Oh...

Oh well.

Snotlout rose from his log in the middle of the forest and determinedly set out towards the beach. Perhaps he would tame a Scauldron. One of the, would certainly be large, powerful and deadly enough to befit a Viking of his status.

What was that lump on the beach over there? It looked almost human shaped.

Wait... there were two. Feeling a sudden unexplainable twinge of fear he sprinted over to look at the nearest shape.

What he saw was etched into his mind for the rest of his life.

It was Astrid. Pale, blue and not breathing. Snotlout threw his head against her chest to listen for a heartbeat.

...

...

I finally got round to updating! Yay!

Heheheh... I'm evil. This was originally all one part but I've split it in to two... and guess what? I'm not going to publish the second part for a while! 

Nah. It'll be up as soon as I'm happy with it.

Also, it's NaNoWriMo again. I may be going to publish my new NaNoWriMo novel here! Unfortunately that means progress on other books slows right down, but then you lot get a whole new book!

🦅—Aquila